Home Prices Avoid Polar Vortex; Strongest Gains Since 2006

Homernprices, including sales of distressed homes, increased nationally by 12 percentrnin the 12 months ended in January CoreLogic said today.  This was the 23^rd consecutivernmonth in which the company’s Home Price Index (HPI) showed prices up nationallyrnon a year-over-year basis.  Excludingrndistressed sales prices rose 9.8 percent.</p

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Januaryrnprices, including distressed sales, rose 0.9 percent and excluding those sales werernup 0.7 percent.  Distressed sales arernshort sales and sales of bank-owned real estate (REO).rn</p

Threernstates surpassed their previous home price peaks in 2013.  The three, Texas, Nebraska, and Louisianarnestablished new price peaks for the month while 19 other states and thernDistrict of Columbia are within 10 percent of their peak prices.   Allrnthree of the states setting new market had rates of appreciation below thernnational average in 2013.  The new peaksrnmay be as much a factor of having suffered smaller than average declines inrnhome values during the housing crisis as an indication of strong appreciation duringrnthe recovery.  On a national basis thernpeak to current change in the HPI from the peak in April 2006 to the presentrnwas -17.3 percent including distressed property sales and -13.3 percentrnexcluding them. </p

The fivernstates with the highest 12 month price appreciation were Nevada (+22.2 percent), California (+20.3rnpercent), Oregon (+14.3rnpercent), Michigan (+13.7rnpercent) and Georgia (+13.4 percent).  Arizona and Florida also had a higher rate ofrnappreciation than the national average. rnMississippi prices declined 0.3 percent, the only state to show depreciationrnon CoreLogic’s HPI which included distressed sales.</p

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Every state and the District of Colombia had a year-over-year increase inrnthe HPI which excludes distressed sales. rnThe top five were Nevada (+17.2 percent), California (+16.0rnpercent), Florida (+12.7 percent),rnArizona (+11.5rnpercent) and Oregon (+11.4 percent).  </p

CoreLogic’s Pending HPI forecasts that February 2014 home prices including distressed salesrnwill increase 12.5 percent year overrnyear from Februaryrn2013. Home prices arernexpected to increasern0.7 percent from January 2014 to February 2014. Excluding distressed sales the annual appreciation is predicted at 10.4 percent and thernmonthly change at +1.1 percent.  ThernPending HPI is based on MultiplernListing Service (MLS) data thatrnmeasures price changes for the mostrnrecent month.rn</p

“Polar vorticesrnand a string of snow storms did not managernto weaken housernprice appreciation in January,” said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economistrnfor CoreLogic. “The lastrntime January month-over-month and year-over-year pricernappreciation was this strong was at the heightrnof the housing bubble in 2006.”rn</p

“Home prices continued to march higher in January andrnwe expect to see more increases as the marketrncomes out of hibernation for the springrnbuying season,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “Excluding distressed sales, allrn50 states and the Districtrnof Columbia showed year-over-year home price appreciation forrnJanuary.”rn</p

97 of the top 100 Core Based StatisticalrnAreas measured by populationrnshowed year-over-year increasesrnin January 2014. Thernthree that did not were New Haven-Milford,rnConnecticut, Philadelphia, and Rochester, New York.

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